by Carver Pike
“What was that?” he asked.
The rippling began to reveal Gabe, Ivy, and Haylay on the other side, watching them. Gabe pulled his finger back from the mirror.
“Amazing,” he said again. His voice was slightly muffled.
“Gabe?” Allie asked as she stared into the mirror.
Cutter stared at the three forms standing on the other side of the liquefied mirror. He had never seen anything like it. He’d never heard of anything like it. He was supposed to be free to run amuck on the pleasant side of the mirror until he finished his task and even then, it was supposed to be his decision when to go back.
This wasn’t fair.
His blood began to boil and hatred filled his heart. Rage took over. His face twisted into a mask of vengeance as he huffed and puffed, ready to cut the flesh off Gabe’s face.
***
Gabe stared at the man in front of him. The dirty looking maniac was the reason for all his recent suffering. He was the reason so many of his friends were dead. He’d felt pain and misery like none before, and it was all because of the image standing on the other side of the mirror, pretending to be him.
Hatred overcame him in an instant and without even thinking, he balled up his fists and charged at the mirror. He dove through like a linebacker about to make the game winning sack. There was a loud sucking sound as his body squeezed through. He had a hard time controlling his body when it came through the other side. It was as if he’d been suddenly released from a bungee cord.
Cutter was in front of him and Gabe did his best to maintain his composure and stay on target. He hit Cutter with his shoulder and lifted him up by his legs, tackling him into the vanity behind him.
Glass shattered and wood splintered as the two heavy men flipped over and onto the ground.
Allie screamed and fell out of her seat. She crawled across the floor and found a hiding spot behind a clothing rack at the corner of the room. Lisa narrowly avoided Gabe’s attack. She fell backwards onto the ground and slid away.
Cutter recovered more quickly than Gabe did. He grabbed Gabe’s shirt and tossed him into a wooden cabinet. The door shattered as Gabe’s body crashed through it and then rolled back out onto the floor.
Cutter rained down punches to Gabe’s face.
He pulled out his large knife, which gave Gabe the perfect opportunity to retaliate. He elbowed Cutter hard in the face.
Cutter’s nose popped and gushed blood. He covered it with his left hand while he swiped at Gabe’s face with his knife wielding right. The knife missed Gabe’s face and slashed Gabe’s shirt, barely scratching the flesh of his stomach.
“Gabe!” Lisa yelled.
Cutter spun around at the sound of her voice, giving Gabe the momentary pause needed to get the advantage. He grabbed one of the wooden chairs under the vanity counter and swung it upward, trying to take Cutter’s head off, but Cutter leaned backwards in time and Gabe missed.
“Nice try, asshole,” Cutter yelled out as he kicked Gabe in his rib cage.
Gabe stumbled back and grabbed the wall to steady himself. Behind Cutter, he saw Lisa snatch up a heavy wooden rolling pin that had been sticking out of a prop box. She lifted it high over her head, and charged at Cutter.
She was moving too quickly for Gabe to stop her, and Cutter was even faster. He turned around and kicked her hard in the gut. The breath flew out of her as she toppled to her left and fell through the mirrored closet and the liquefied portal.
Seeing Lisa hurt sent a sudden rage through Gabe’s spine. His body reacted on auto mode as he jumped to his feet and swung the wooden chair upwards once more, this time cracking it against the bottom of Cutter’s chin. Cutter grunted and fell backwards onto the floor.
***
Ivy and Haylay watched in horror at the events taking place on the other side of the mirror. They didn’t know what to do. They witnessed Lisa’s brave attack and then waited for her as she flew towards them. Haylay caught her right as she splashed through the mirror and into his arms.
“Nice try, baby,” he told her. “You almost had him.”
He helped her get to her feet and then stepped back out of the way when he saw Ivy approaching her.
“Play nice,” he warned.
Ivy stared at Lisa in disbelief. They’d never really seen each other before. Not in a setting such as this. They’d always been aggressively passing each other through the mirror.
“You really do look just like me,” Lisa said.
***
In Allie’s dressing room, the fight was still on. Cutter was on the ground with his chin a bloody mess. Gabe stood over him and smashed the chair against Cutter’s ribs.
The chair shattered, and Gabe quickly grabbed one of the legs and jumped at him, slamming the pointed end down at Cutter’s neck.
Cutter rolled away from the attack, reached up, and stabbed Gabe through the back of his knee with his knife. Gabe fell and gripped the knife handle.
Cutter climbed to his feet and brushed himself off. He pulled a larger knife out of a sheath on his belt and grinned down at Gabe as he spun the knife around in his hand, showing off like some sort of apache warrior.
“They don’t call me Cutter for nuthin’. Say goodnight, pretty boy.”
***
Ivy saw that Cutter was about to stab Gabe. She’d seen Cutter fight often enough to know when the cat was finished playing with the mouse. She knew all too well what was about to happen. Cutter was about to end the little game and finish off Gabe in his usual brutal fashion.
She couldn’t let that happen. She’d never met a man as decent as Gabe, and she’d be damned if a maniac like Cutter was going to end the life of a good man like the better version of Cutter she’d come to know and love.
She rushed at the mirror and dove through.
***
Cutter was convinced that this was the end. He’d played with the weak coward long enough and it was time to finish him. With all of his attention on the injured man at his feet, he didn’t expect anyone to come flying through the mirror.
Ivy lunged at Cutter just as he was about to slash Gabe’s throat.
“No!” Ivy screamed.
Cutter heard her coming and turned, shoving the blade of his large knife into her stomach. She halted with the blade in her and coughed. He held her at the end of his knife like a large meat skewer and tilted his head from left to right, trying to read the expression on Ivy’s face.
There was a tiny piece of him that felt a little badly, but it wasn’t significant enough to really mean anything.
“You tried to hurt me, doll,” Cutter said to her.
“Leave him alone…he’s…a good man,” Ivy said with shaky breath.
She coughed and blood spurted out of her mouth.
To Cutter’s surprise, Gabe seemed to really care about the dark haired tramp he’d been dragging around all over the place. What a puss. He almost laughed aloud when Gabe muttered her name.
“Ivy?” Gabe said with his mouth turning upside down, like a wimpy little kid who’d watched his true love get the shit kicked out of her.
Cutter half expected the douche bag to give up the fight altogether, but that wasn’t what happened.
His pretty boy side was actually looking mad, like he might actually start to put up a real fight.
With gritted teeth and wide, fiery eyes, Gabe yanked the blade out of the back of his knee and pounced on him.
It took Cutter a second to realize what had happened. It hurt like hell. Gabe stepped back, looking satisfied. Cutter reached up to his neck and felt the knife handle on one side, and the pointy end of the blade on the other. The son of a bitch had stabbed him through the neck.
Cutter gasped and let go of Ivy.
She fell to the floor.
He turned to Gabe.
Blood ran down his neck and from his mouth. His eyes became blurry. Through the vanity mirror he saw the severity of the situation. He’d lost a lot of blood and a lot more was pouring out.
The funny thing was that even though he felt a lot of pain, it was the choking that bothered him most.
He wanted to yell and scream and get ferocious again, but he could only cough and spit. The words wouldn’t form.
Finally, he found his words, but they didn’t come out as tough as he wanted them to. Instead, his voice came out through gargled, bloody breath.
“You wanna fuck with me?” Cutter erupted, with a gob of bloody spit.
With all of the energy he had left, he reached out, punched Gabe one last time in the mouth, and then grabbed him by his hair and ran with him towards the mirror. He shoved Gabe through the liquefied portal.
***
Haylay and Lisa tried to catch Gabe as he stumbled through the mirror, but he was moving too quickly, and he tripped and slid across the ground.
Lisa rushed to his side. Gabe looked up at her and smiled. Seeing her again was the best feeling he’d ever felt.
“I thought I’d lost you,” Gabe said.
Noise from the other side of the mirror captured Gabe’s attention, and he quickly climbed to his feet.
Through the liquefied mirror, Gabe saw Ivy down on her knees, bleeding all over the floor.
“Over here, lover boy,” Cutter said.
Gabe turned his attention to Cutter, who was standing right in front of the mirror, on the other side, with a pistol pointed at his head.
His neck was bleeding all over the place and it looked like he was having a hard time remaining on his feet. His body swayed back and forth, threatening to collapse on him at any second.
He cocked the gun and smiled at Gabe.
“Enjoy life on the dark side,” Cutter said with a bloody grin.
“No!” Gabe yelled.
Cutter pulled the trigger before Gabe had the chance to react.
His brains blew out the opposite side of his head, and the maniac known as Cutter crumbled to the ground, dead.
Gabe ran at the mirror as hard as he could, but didn’t get anywhere. He smacked into the solidified mirror. The glass cracked on impact, and Gabe fell back onto the floor with a thud, blood trickling down the thin slice on his forehead.
“No! No!” Gabe cried out from his position on the floor.
It couldn’t be.
If Cutter was dead, that meant he was stuck on the dark side for the rest of his life. He slapped at the glass and sighed in defeat.
Cutter had used his last breath, his last words, to completely destroy him. It was the ultimate act of evil. The final FUCK YOU.
Lisa crawled over to him and hugged him tightly, trying to comfort him.
“He’s dead, Gabe, but you’re alive. Calm down,” Lisa said.
“I’m stuck here now,” Gabe reminded her.
“No, you’re not. You’re gonna come home with me,” Lisa replied, in denial.
She smiled, trying to assure him that everything would be okay. He shook his head from side to side and touched a hand to her cheek. He wiped at the tears flowing down her eyes.
“You have to go. Ivy’s dying. If you don’t switch with her now, you’ll be stuck here too,” Gabe said.
Through the mirror, Ivy could be seen crawling across the ground. She grabbed the counter and pulled herself to her feet. She made her way slowly and painfully towards the mirror.
“He’s right,” Ivy said. “You better hurry. I’m bleeding really badly.”
Ivy touched the mirror and it liquefied. She was losing a lot of blood. A pool had gathered at her feet.
“Kiss him goodbye, and come on,” Ivy suggested.
Gabe stood up and helped Lisa climb to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. He kissed her softly.
“I love you,” Lisa said.
Gabe smiled and nodded.
“I know,” he replied.
Through the mirror, Ivy could be seen shaking her head in disagreement.
“No, you need to tell her Gabe,” Ivy warned him. “She needs to know. Tell her what you told me.”
Gabe held onto Lisa’s hand. He wanted to tell her but it didn’t seem fair. To tell her how he felt at this moment would be selfish. She needed to go home.
“What is it?” Lisa asked.
He shook his head.
“Tell her, Gabe. She’d want to know,” Ivy said.
She was right. Lisa would want to know. She’d been through so much and she needed to know that it meant something to him. Her sacrifices, her pain, her…their…time together. It all meant so much to him.
“I love you too,” Gabe said. “I think I always have.”
Lisa wore a sad smile on her face.
“Go. Live a good life. Go now before it’s too late,” Gabe said as he gave her a little push towards the mirror. “And for God’s sake, don’t work so hard. Have more fun. Let loose a little.”
He could tell Lisa was trying hard to smile as she hugged Gabe one last time. She looked at Haylay from within Gabe’s embrace.
“Take care of him, Haylay,” she said.
“You know I will. We’re kind of a team now,” Haylay replied.
Lisa let go of Gabe and kissed him once on the forehead.
“Please be careful,” she said.
Lisa walked to the mirror and grabbed Ivy’s hand.
This was it.
Gabe was filled with mixed emotions. He’d miss her more than he could ever admit, but he was happy that she could go back to the life she knew before all of the madness had begun, and with her image dying, she’d never have to worry about this happening again.
She was leaving though. She was about to walk through that mirror, and he’d never see her again.
She looked back at Gabe once more.
“I can’t leave him,” she said to Ivy.
“Do you really love him?” Ivy asked.
Tears streamed down Lisa’s face as she pursed her lips and nodded.
“I do.”
What was Lisa doing? She needed to go.
Hearing Lisa talk about him like that gave Gabe hope for his future, but hope meant she’d be giving up her opportunity to leave.
Ivy looked past Lisa to where Gabe was standing.
“Looks like you’re the Haissem after all,” Ivy said.
She smiled at Lisa and then pretended to rub her own belly.
“Go with Gabe to the Blue Capped Mountains. It’s peaceful there. Stay there together. Raise the baby,” Ivy told her.
Lisa looked at her, confused.
“The baby?” she asked as she looked back at Gabe. Gabe was as confused as Lisa looked.
Ivy let go of Lisa’s hand and walked away. With her back to the mirror, she fell to her knees, and the mirror solidified.
Gabe sat silent in disbelief. He didn’t know how to react, and it seemed that Lisa didn’t either. She stood for a moment in front of the solid mirror, staring at her own reflection.
The regular old Lisa stared back at her. She reached out to touch the mirror and rested her hand on the hand of her reflection. Lisa backed up into Gabe’s arms. He was happy, but angry at the same time.
“You’re crazy. Why did you do that?” Gabe asked.
She didn’t even look at him, but continued to stare at the mirror as she rested her head on Gabe’s chest. Her hands went to her belly where she began to rub it and Gabe knew she was thinking of Ivy’s last words.
“Raise the baby,” she’d said.
“Every Haissem needs a good woman by his side,” Lisa said.
Gabe reached down and lifted her chin so their lips could meet. They kissed.
“I hate to interrupt,” Haylay interrupted, “but I can show you where those Blue Capped Mountains are if you want.”
“And what about her?” Lisa asked.
They all looked down at Alleycat, who was staring right back at them. She was no longer struggling behind her bindings, as if she’d realized she’d been better off compared to what they’d all gone through.
“Can we leave her here like this, p
lease?” Lisa joked.
Chapter 17 – The Beginning of the End
It was dark in the Blue Capped Mountains, which weren’t actually blue capped at all. The nighttime air was peaceful and quiet, nothing like the crazy city life of Darkar or the Slums of York.